“What can I do with this condemning heart?”
(Please read 2 Samuel 2: 12-1-15, Psalm 51, 1 John 3: 18-24)
The background story to Psalm 51, adapted from 2 Sam 12…
Late one afternoon – after his usual nap – the King was strolling about on the palace roof. He noticed a woman bathing in the garden of the adjacent property. She was beautiful.
The King made enquiries, discovering her name and that her husband was away on military duty. The King could have anything or anyone he wanted, so he sent for the woman. He slept with his neighbour’s wife.
Sometime later a note arrived: “I’m with child! What shall I do?!”
The King arranged for her husband to have a furlough to explain the pregnancy. But the soldier-husband refused to abandon his post.
The King had no alternative but to arrange to have the soldier killed in battle. He was killed. After a period of mourning the King kindly took the woman as his wife and a son was born.
One day a wise friend came to see the King and told him a story: 2 men lived in the same town – one rich, the other poor. The rich man had many herds and flocks, the poor man had one ewe lamb which was precious like a family member.
A traveller visited the rich man and he prepared a meal. But instead of choosing an animal from his own flocks he stole the poor man’s lamb and cooked it instead.
The King was furious at this injustice and demanded to know who this man was – he deserved to die. Who is this fellow? The wise friend looked the rich man in the eye. “You are the man!”
The King (David) understood. All along he had known he had sinned. Bathsheba’s baby died a week old. David was broken hearted.
You may not have committed murder or adultery, but Psalm 51 applies to us. We have all been troubled by shame; we all know what it feels like to have sinned – to have let ourselves, others and let God down. These may be a distant memory or a present reality. This is what faces David.
What can the king do to deal with the terrible load of guilt that weighs him down? The king knows that he has let things slide. He stopped leading, stopped doing what he did at first (fighting passionately for God); he stayed on the sofa; he got comfortable and complacent – but deep down he knew this wasn’t right. His conscience told him…
What can the king do? Well, David has already started the process. After hearing Nathan’s parable – “I am the man!” “It’s my guilt; no-one else’s…” David can’t blame anyone else for his transgressions, iniquities, his sins. David has owned up. David has to take responsibility. Nathan has delivered a powerful message to David but he did it gently by way of a parable. He didn’t list the king’s faults…condemn him. No-one is more aware than David of David’s sins. It is my job to confess my sins and list them, not yours. SO…
1. David FLIES TO GOD. David is quick to go to God. There was nowhere else to turn but to God. He has to go to the throne of grace & mercy. He can’t appeal to his past successes, his reputation (name) to atone for his sins. (O GOD); confession to God will be David’s first “port of call”. Prayer for God’s forgiveness is David’s first act.
David knows that only God can forgive him – only God can remove the stain of guilt. He can only appeal to God’s nature of love, mercy and compassion – but doesn’t take any of that for granted. The prophet Nathan has said, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You won’t die, David!”
But David needs an experience of God’s forgiveness himself.
2. He knows how SERIOUS SIN IS: It is “ever before me” – it’s always there. His sin is deep. He knows that sin has kept him far away from God.
Blot out – wash away – wash thoroughly (cleanse/purge); unconfessed sin can lead to sickness of mind (51:8; 10; 11, 12) & of body (51:8). Many people suffer long because they haven’t gone quickly to God & poured out their soul to him. It’s small wonder that “confession is good for the soul”.
Although there is a list of people against whom David had sinned it is firstly a sin against God in David’s eyes (verse 4; 2 Sam 2:13)
3. He knows he must be honest and repentant:
David’s tears are those of godly sorrow; not crocodile tears – they are penitent tears. The lying, cheating (the whole nine yards) are (essentially) an affront to God. David’s first concern is not the punishment – he deserves everything that may come to him (Ps 51:4). David, unlike many criminals, is sorry that he ever did these things against God (and others); his sorrow is that his actions have hurt God and hurt his people – not that he got caught.
David doesn’t want to go the way of King Saul from whom the Spirit of God departed. He wants the joy of the earlier days of his salvation restored to him; he (David) wants to feel something akin to the “first love” that Jesus refers to in Revelation. Don’t we all? Jesus tells the church at Ephesus that they’ve fallen from quite a height & that repentance is the way it should go. But there is good news! There is a way out.
In his desperation David is still confident he will be clean but only after he has made a full and unfettered confession to the Lord. The comfort can only come after the confession is made. We can share this confidence: From a broken (and contrite heart) the Lord will never turn his face away (Ps 51:17) …
All we can do is bring (exactly) who we are before the Lord. There’s no point pretending. He knows anyway. There is joy in knowing the forgiveness of God. We will learn to sing and declare and praise again, like David when we come clean and become clean.
David didn’t have a view of the Cross of Christ like we do, (he knew nothing of the blood of Christ) but he knew the throne of God of His mercy, the God of cleansing and re-creation, the God of the 2nd chance and then-some – he knew the God who would never leave nor forsake him!
4. If we do these things we know our conscience will be cleansed:
Sometimes all we hear is the accuser’s voice in a condemning conscience:
“I know what the devil will say to you. He will say to you, ‘You are a sinner!’ Tell him you know you are, but that for all that you are justified. He will tell you of the greatness of your sin. Tell him of the greatness of Christ’s righteousness. He will tell you of all your mishaps and your backslidings, of your offences and your wanderings. Tell him, and tell your own conscience, that you know all that, but that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and that, although your sin be great, Christ is quite able to put it all away…” (Charles Spurgeon)
Someone has said that the conscience is “that still, small voice that makes you feel smaller still,” or as a young lad said, “It is that which feels bad (even) when everything else feels good.”
The writer to the Hebrews addressed a people whose consciences told them that they were not saved unless they did something for their salvation. They, therefore, put their nagging consciences to rest by religious activity. That never works! Their consciences goaded them…
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9: 11-14)
What can we do? Be quick to go to God - repent; acknowledge the seriousness of our sin; be sorrowful in a godly way for our sins… and receive God’s forgiveness.
It is (only) through the blood of Christ that Christians receive the cleansing of their consciences. They are clean inside! There is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:1) We are new creations. The condemnation (the curse) has fallen on Him! What blessed assurance! What security! What freedom!
There is another voice to which we should listen and he speaks this morning from this place - to the heart of our hearts. In this truth we have fellowship with God and with each other. We know we are “from the truth” (His) and that will reassure our hearts…that whenever our hearts do condemn us…God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything!
Come without a condemning heart to the table of the LORD.